A wireless communication device, such as a mobile phone device or a smart phone, may include two or more Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs). Each SIM may correspond to at least one subscription via a Radio Access Technology (RAT). Such a wireless communication device may be a multi-SIM wireless communication device. In a Multi-SIM-Multi-Active (MSMA) wireless communication device, all SIMs may be active at the same time. In a Multi-SIM-Multi-Standby (MSMS) wireless communication device, if any one SIM is active, then the rest of the SIM(s) may be in a standby mode. The RATs may include, but are not limited to, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (particularly, Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO)), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) (particularly, Time Division Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA or TDS) Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), and the like), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access 1× Radio Transmission Technology (1×), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Wi-Fi, Personal Communications Service (PCS), and other protocols that may be used in a wireless communications network or a data communications network.
In mobility scenarios in which a multi-SIM wireless communication device is mobile, a network (e.g., a LTE network) corresponding to a first subscription (e.g., enabled by a first SIM) can request the wireless communication device to perform measurements for various inter-RAT and/or inter-frequency neighbors for handover and/or reselection purposes. For instance, the network may send multiple measurement configuration messages via back-to-back Radio Resource Control (RRC) Over-The-Air (OTA) messages or SIB updates within a relatively short period of time. The manner in which the measurement configuration messages are processed can considerably impact performance on both the first subscription and second subscription (e.g., enabled by a second SIM), as well as power consumption.
However, existing processes can be inefficient in such scenarios. For instance, existing processes dictate that upon receiving a second measurement configuration message from the network that is different from a first measurement configuration message received prior in time, the wireless communication device aborts any on-going measurements based on the first measurement configuration message. Illustrating with an example related to LTE-to-TDS handover/reselection measurements on the first subscription, upon receiving a first RRC reconfiguration OTA message from the network, the wireless communication device initiates LTE-to-TDS measurements by starting an initial acquisition on a target TDS cell. Upon receiving a second RRC reconfiguration OTA message that adds neighbor RAT measurement information but does not modify the TDS measurement object (e.g., the target cell), the wireless communication device aborts the on-going acquisition on the target cell and restarts the acquisition on the same target cell based on the added information as a part of regular LTE-to-TDS measurements.
Therefore, restarting the on-going measurements can waste a considerable amount of time and power. In addition, performance of the second subscription (as well as additional subscription(s)) can be impacted due to prolonged usage of shared RF resource, interference, power back-off, and/or the like caused by the prolonged measurements on the first subscription. The reduction in user-experience with respect to the second subscription can also manifest in high chances of Circuit Switched (CS) call failure on the second subscription. Furthermore, the delay in measurement reporting to the network can also result, leading to consecutive failures in mobility handovers.